To celebrate 19th Amendment, Lexington breaks ‘Bronze Ceiling’ with statue honoring women
With the silhouettes of five 20-foot tall suffragists towering over him, Gov. Andy Beshear told a small crowd gathered in downtown Lexington on Wednesday night that it was long past time to honor the achievements of women but called on all Kentuckians to strive to make Kentucky a more inclusive and fair place for everyone.
“We have 5,000 monuments in the United States and less than 7 percent of them are of women,” Beshear said. “I’m pretty proud that the city of Lexington built theirs big enough to be seen by everybody.”
Beshear’s comments came at the official dedication of “Stand,” an art installation of five suffragists at the corner of Vine and Mills streets, commissioned to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. It is the first statue in downtown Lexington in more than 100 years that honors the achievements of women.
The dedication was originally scheduled for Tuesday, the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, but was moved to Wednesday due to rain.
Beshear said not all women were granted the right to vote on August 18, 1920. It took the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which gave Black men and women the right to vote, to make that happen. The coronavirus pandemic has exposed long-standing racial inequalities in Kentucky and across the country. It will take the same persistence and perseverance that it took to pass the 19th Amendment to correct and address systematic racism, Beshear said.
“Today we are here to recognize. We are here to celebrate but I also hope we are here to commit,” Beshear said. “COVID has laid bare the inequalities in our commonwealth. I hope it has made us strive to be better people. It has shown us we need to do a lot of things a lot better.”
Wednesday night’s dedication of Stand was nearly three years in the making.
It was the controversy surrounding two Confederate-era statues on the lawn of the former Fayette County Courthouse that ignited the effort to erect a monument to honor the achievements of women.
It was shortly after the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council voted in August 2017 to move the statues of John C. Breckinridge and John Hunt Morgan that Councilwoman Jennifer Mossotti realized there were no statues of women in downtown Lexington. Media reports about the lack of statues or monuments honoring the achievements of women across the country plus the upcoming 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment spurred her into action.
“Tonight we stand proudly on all of the shoulders of the brave suffragists of the past,” Mossotti said. “That we recognize the fight for universal suffrage is incomplete. Stand reminds us all of the most essential element of a functioning democracy — the right to vote.”
Mossotti and Councilwoman Kathy Plomin spear-headed the efforts to get the statue built along with the Breaking the Bronze Ceiling steering committee.
That to-do list included raising $500,000 to build the statue. Plomin said they have reached that goal but are still taking donations to help with maintenance and upkeep of the installation. The city donated $100,000, which helped jump-start fundraising. The group also secured a $20,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant, with help from U.S. Rep. Andy Barr, R-Lexington. Developer Dudley Webb donated land for the installation in front of the Fifth Third Building. The group also conducted a national search for artists. The design of Barbara Grygutis of Tucson, Arizona, was picked from four finalists out of 127 proposals submitted.
Barr said he was honored to be a small part of the effort to make Stand happen.
“We thank the NEA for recognizing the significance of this monument and contributing $20,000,” Barr said.
Mayor Linda Gorton told the crowd Stand recognizes an historic moment but should also be a reminder to fight for what’s right and to vote.
“This sculpture tells us to stand up and be recognized. Stand for the brightest and the best. Stand for our city and stand for the vote,” Gorton said. Those women who fought for that right to vote would be disappointed voter turn out has barely surpassed 50 percent in Kentucky in the most recent elections, she said.
“Although we may be lazy about exercising our franchise, forces trying to suppress the vote are hard at work. The struggle for the right to vote did not end in 1920 or in 1965. It’s a struggle that’s ongoing,” Gorton said.
Fayette District Court Judge Melissa Moore Murphy said the contributions of Black women during the suffrage movement of 1920 were often left out of history. Murphy said as an elected Black woman she owes those Black women who never stopped fighting.
“It is important that we acknowledge and pay tribute to the countless Black women who were also members of the movement that fought for women’s right to vote but have been eliminated from the telling of the story,” Murphy said. “It is crucial that we credit and distinguish their work as they found themselves in even more precarious and tenuous position yet they still took a stand.”
Black women continued to stand for that right to vote even when they were told they had to march at the back behind white suffragists.
“They decided to create their own movement,” Murphy said. “I stand here to solute and pay tribute to them.”
Stand is not the first statue to honor a woman in downtown Lexington. No one alive remembers the first. It was only on display for 13 years before 1900.
In 1884, a group of women raised money to purchase a marble statue of a woman to be placed at the former Fayette County Courthouse. Kentucky artist Joel T. Hart’s marble sculpture “Woman Triumphant” of a naked Venus like sculpture was dedicated in July 1885. But a 1897 fire at the courthouse later destroyed the statue, according to University of Kentucky historian Melanie Goan. The statue was never replaced.
Soon there will be more statues honoring women in other parts of Kentucky.
By next August a statue honoring Nettie Depp, an educator and a reformer, will be unveiled at the state capitol, the first statue of a woman there.
Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman said Wednesday honoring women and the work of women in public spaces is important.
“A failure to observe women in places of honor narrows the vision of our youth and reveals a lack of understanding of American history regarding women’s work, their sacrifice and immeasurable and timeless contributions to society’s advancements,” Coleman said.
This story was originally published August 20, 2020 at 7:16 AM.
